The reason why we saved this topic for last is because combos are supposed to be the last thing you learn as a Tekken 8 newbie. Fundamentals like offense, defense, movement, frame data, and the like are way more important for new players to get to grips with first. After all, practicing combos all day isn’t going to mean much if you can’t create opportunities to do them in a real match.
But once you’ve got the basics down, sure, it’s time for the fun part. Welcome to our Tekken 8 juggle combo guide!
What is the Basic Structure of a Tekken 8 Juggle Combo?
The composition of a juggle combo in Tekken 8 is actually quite simple. It starts with a launcher, which either sends the opponent into the air, or causes them to keel over in such a way that you have enough time to execute a combo afterwards. Moves that have special properties on counter hit tend to cause the latter, while natural launchers like Dragunov’s Scimitar (d/f+2) cause the former.
After the launcher, you typically apply some combo filler. Then, you apply the appropriate tornado move, which flips the opponent in the air and prevents them from getting up for a certain amount of time. Note that you can only flip your opponent this way once in any given combo, so once you’ve used up your tornado, you can’t do so again in the same combo.
The tornado state is key to making sure your combos are as long and damaging as possible, so don’t forget to use it when it’s available. Afterwards, you can follow up with either more combo filler or your character’s best combo ender, whichever is more appropriate for the situation.
When it comes to executing the combo itself, the important part is to get the rhythm of the button presses down rather than just trying to press everything as quickly as possible. The metronome-like sound effect of the combo demos in practice mode help a lot in this regard, as it will basically indicate the timing you need for any particular combo.
To recap, most juggle combos go as follows, in order:
- Launcher
- Combo filler
- Tornado
- Combo filler (if applicable)
- Combo ender
Wall Splat Combos
Every stage (at least thus far) in Tekken 8 features walls. What most new Tekken 8 players may not realize is that you can actually get a lot of extra damage in a combo by utilizing what is called a wall splat — which is a state wherein your opponent collides with the wall and slumps down slowly.
Specifically, a high wall splat is the most desirable outcome here, as it gives you the most leeway to run up to your hapless opponent and apply your best wall ender. Wall enders are strings or moves specifically used to apply maximum damage to a wall splatted opponent, with the last hit in particular resetting damage scaling.
For example, Jin’s Savage Sword (d/b+2,2,3) enjoys unscaled damage on the last hit on a wall splatted opponent. Same goes for Asuka’s White Heron Dance (1+4,2,4). Most characters have at least two or three different wall enders; which one is best depends on the situation at hand. Experiment with your character’s options, and keep in mind that you may not want to always end at the wall the same way every time.
Combos from a Low Parry
When you successfully execute a low parry (hit d/f at the exact time your opponent does a low attack), your opponent will immediately go into the tornado state. This means that you can combo them immediately after the low parry — albeit with heavily scaled damage. Still, low parrying tends to give you a bigger reward compared to blocking, if the attack that you low parried would otherwise not be launch punishable.
A classic example is the second hit of Law’s Junkyard Kick (b+2,3,4), which is otherwise safe on block. Low parrying it nets you a nice reward in the form of damage and wall carry. But again, because low parrying in Tekken 8 causes an instant tornado state, you basically have to memorize a different combo for your character here.
How Does Damage Scaling Work in Tekken 8 Combos?
You’ve seen us talk about damage scaling throughout this guide so far, but what exactly is damage scaling?
Damage scaling reduces the damage dealt by individual moves within the same combo. It is in place so that you can’t just KO your opponent from full health to zero in one juggle, thus extending rounds and giving them a chance to fight back after getting up.
The short of it all is that the more individual hits you put into a combo, the harsher the scaling will be as you go along. Devil Jin’s Three Ring Circus (1+4) is a good example of this, as it is often used as combo filler after his counter hit launchers. It accomplishes the task of picking up the opponent for a juggle after they crumple to the ground, but is undesirable when going for maximum damage.
To that end, you want to either limit the number of hits in your combo fillers, or go for the most damaging filler options to take advantage of the more lenient scaling at the start of combos. What this might look like depends on your character’s move list, of course, so you’ll have to find what works best in this regard and in what situation.
Finishing Your Opponent Off with Heat Dash Combos
In our Heat System guide, we talked about how you can extend combos with Heat Burst and Heat Dash. Heat Dash in particular is very useful for ending rounds early, as certain moves enjoy reduced scaling right after a Heat Dash.
For example, Devil Jin can do Heaven’s Door (cd 1,u/f) right after any Heat Dash and get better scaling from there. This applies no matter how long your combo is or how many hits there are in it before you do the Heat Dash into Heaven’s Door, so you can safely maximize your combo prior to the Heat Dash.
Of course, this does leave you out of Heat right after, so you’ll want to try your best to ensure that your Heat Dash ender will win you the round right then and there — especially if your character is particularly dependent on Heat.
And that’s the end of our Tekken 8 Beginner Series! Thank you all so much for being with us the whole way through. Any Tekken 8 guides from here on will be about intermediate and advanced concepts, so if you want to really step up your game, stick around for more.
